An O.A.P.'s view of everything.

Monthly Archives: December 2012

>New Year’s Eve and so here’s wishing a very Happy and prosperous New Year to any reader.
The ‘Header’ picture?
Yes. Not all the ‘fiction’ you might read, is fiction! It is indeed H.M. The Queen, down in the gold-vaults at Threadneedle Street.
QED

Clear and dry this morning but that may mean too, that it’s cold. It may look like good biking weather but, it isn’t. A patch of unseen ice, on the road, and two wheels alone are highly dangerous.
Traffic; cars etc. are the main problem for cyclists but, at this time of year, ice, and having only two wheels, is a bigger one. It means that for two or three months of a year, despite all the ‘good-health’, ‘good-eco-sense’,’good economy’ govern-mental soundbytes promoting cycling, two wheels are a no-go-area. In deep snow, for the average rider, shoving the pedals is impossible. On ice you just fall over.
So, for many travellers, work or pleasure, the vastly expensive (compared to a bike) car is wheeled-out again while the weather is ‘bad’.
But in deep snow, or on ice, most cars are not much use either. But at least they don’t fall over. And they’re warm.
And most of our roads, in the north especially, were designed for horses and carts, not snow-ploughs, so much snow isn’t shifted. Or even gritted. All of which is labour-intensively expensive for all rates and tax payers.
So, what are we doing wrong? Is there a way out of this seemingly endless problem?

It’s raining, with a large, dark-grey cloud immediately overhead. And there are thick mists over the far hills. So a picture, taken earlier in the month, on a similar, rainy day.
It’s not a day for riding the bike (so far!) and, really, it’s holiday time – hence shorter daily posts.But, hopefully, after the winter (and wintry!) festivities, general activities will re-start for yet another year of the blog.

No rain, at the moment, and there is a hint of brightness over the lanes.The photo’ was taken earlier in the month on a day with similar weather.
Daily – well, more or less daily – photo’s (of locations in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester) will be uploaded after our Chrissy and New Year Holidays.

Isn’t it great when you can get back to normal – you know, eating, drinking, sleeping…
It’s quite fine too this morning, sunny and clear. But the lanes, locally, will be flooded after the rain of the past week.
Have a good Boxing Day.

Christmas Eve 2012 and it’s dark, still, but dry outside. A typical mid-winter early morning in the north.
Dry? It’s chucking it down now! But, such is ‘weather’ around here. I’ve jazzed the ‘site up a bit – with a bit of Open Source Holly – which is, believe it or not, hard to get hold of. And a Chrissy pic – without some ‘.com’ watermark is like gold!
So, as Christmas Day nears, a very Merry Christmas to all those Bonanza fans, that can’t type, and end-up here!
And to all those riding or tramping the local canal tow-paths every day.
And to all ‘Techies’ – no Techies, no Internet – simple as that.
Have a good Chrissy Eve all!

Radcliffe is rainy and misty today and so the Weather Lady, on TV the other night, got things about right. The picture is from earlier in the month as, with Christmas being nigh, outdoor expeditions have been curtailed a bit. But, yesterday, it being dry – ish, a walk to Radcliffe was done with a Bus-Ride back. The Weather Lady said it would be dry on Friday!
A Canon Printer/Scanner, (Chrissy present!) works well on Linux (Mint – Maya) with drivers downloaded from Canon website – just look for the correct driver for your model. Printer and scanner have, in my case, seperate drivers, but a little mouse-clicking gets things working. This printer too, is very quiet – nice!